Career Development: Fellowships, Internships, Training & Grants

AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellowships

The 2018 fellowship will take place Dec. 2-6.

The application deadline has passed.

♦ Need inspiration?

♦ Story ideas?

♦ How about new sources?

♦ What if you could visit labs and watch researchers tackle the latest public health issues?

AHCJ has teamed up with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – with the support of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust – for this national fellowship program for journalists. Up to 10 fellows will be chosen to spend a week studying public health issues at two CDC campuses. The AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows will:

Ali S. Khan, former director of the CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, speaks to AHCJ fellows in the CDC Emergency Operations Center. (Len Bruzzese/AHCJ)

learn how to tap the agency's abundant resources to produce better stories

Candidates should be working journalists who qualify for AHCJ professional membership – please check here to see if you qualify. The fellowship includes AHCJ membership (new or renewed), travel expenses within the United States, a food stipend and lodging.

Comments from some past fellows:

"Fantastic! An incredible opportunity to meet top CDC officials, make relationships and really deeply enhance my learning of complicated subject matter - from contagious diseases to environmental health issues - that is difficult to get on deadline. This was an amazing experience, and helped me generate many story ideas. I even wrote a cholera daily story from information provided at this week's sessions!"– Rong-Gonglin, II, Los Angeles Times

I will speak of this program only in accolades. I found this to be an eye-opening, informative, educational and absolutely breathtaking experience. I am indebted to AHCJ for giving me this opportunity and feel privileged and honored to have been a part of this boot camp.– Cindy Uken, Billings Gazette

It was nicely focused. I got information that I can use right away. You kept us busy enough without overloading us. Just knowing the structure and breadth of what CDC does is great.– Lisa Baertlein, Reuters

The program offers health journalists a unique opportunity to learn about the nerve center of public health and public health safety. I will take valuable “insider” knowledge back to my office. And it has been wonderful connecting with other journalists who share my passion and challenges to tell important stories, despite stretched resources.– Karen Herzog, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Still not convinced? Here's more from former fellows:

"As a magazine freelancer, I was brimming with story ideas after leaving the fellowship, and I soon put that information to use in articles for Good Housekeeping, Reader's Digest, More, Parenting and other publications." That's what fellow Meryl Davids Landau, a freelance writer based in Florida, said about the fellowship. In "Eight months later, freelancer still generating story ideas from fellowship," she writes about meeting top officials at the CDC, briefings from experts on health issues from genomics to infectious diseases to child safety and more. She says they learned about navigating databases such as the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey and CDC publications.

And if you've ever wanted to tell the CDC what to do, be inspired by fellow JoNel Aleccia who suggested they send media their tentative Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report lineup the day before publication, something that was implemented and is still in practice.

The Las Vegas Sun's Marshall Allen, who was a member of first class of AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows, learned that avian flu was still a danger. Elizabeth Fernandez of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote about the CDC's efforts to uncover what causes autism.Modern Healthcare’s Jessica Zigmond wrote about the enthusiasm she encountered among public health experts at the CDC. She says it allowed her to find an expert who “not only had great interest in his work, but who also seemed genuinely interested in sharing that information with a group of 11 journalists, all of whom had different backgrounds, interests and goals.” In 2019, fellow Carol Morton wrote this story for The Oregonian about a suicide prevention study.